Thammasat University students interested in sustainable development, food management, political science, ecology, environmental studies, agriculture, land management, biodiversity, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 10 September Zoom webinar on Can Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS) Promote Sustainable Food Systems? Linking Science and Practice.
The event, on Tuesday, 10 September 2024 at 6pm Bangkok time, is presented by The United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau), a United Nations (UN) global think tank conducting research and training on digital technologies for sustainable development, encouraging data-driven and evidence-based actions and policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of sustainable food systems.
Students are invited to register at this link:
https://crm.iges.or.jp/public/application/add/5015#registration01
The event announcement states:
This session at the 2024 International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific will discuss how SEPLS can advance sustainability in global food systems.
UNU-IAS will co-organize a thematic track session at the 2024 International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) focused on how socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) can contribute to advancing sustainability in global food systems.
SEPLS are dynamic mosaics of habitats and land/sea use that provide the goods and services needed for human life while being managed to maintain biodiversity. The event will feature case studies by members of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), showcasing practical examples of how SEPLS contribute to sustainable food systems beyond production.
This event is co-organized by UNU-IAS in partnership with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
Programme
Opening Remarks
- Kazuhiko Takeuchi (President, IGES; Visiting Professor, UNU-IAS)
- Koji Miwa (Policy Researcher, Biodiversity and Forests, IGES)
Keynote Speech
- Silvana Juri (Research Associate, South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS); Post-doctoral Fellow, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University)
Case Study Presentations
- Hwa-Ching Lin (Director General, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA), Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan, China)
- Chih-You Ken (Chair of the Board, Miaoli County Saisiyat Indigenous Peoples Forestry and Worker Limited Liability Cooperative; Saisiyat Elder)
- Malin Jönsso (Director, Fundacion Semillas de Vida, A.C.)
Panel Discussion
Moderator:
- Koji Miwa (Policy Researcher, Biodiversity and Forests, IGES)
Panellists:
- Malin Jönsson (Director, Fundacion Semillas de Vida, A.C.)
- Silvana Juri (Research Associate, South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS); Post-doctoral fellow, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University)
- Paulina G. Karim (Post-doctoral Researcher, FANCA; Assistant Professor, National Dong Hwa University)
- Hwa-Ching Lin (Director General, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA), Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan, China)
- Laura Pereira (Professor, Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand; Researcher, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University)
Closing Remarks
- Wataru Suzuki (Director, Biodiversity Strategy Office, Ministry of the Environment, Japan)
About IPSI
The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) is a global network that promotes the sustainable management of SEPLS to maintain biodiversity and support human well-being. UNU-IAS serves as its secretariat.
The International Satoyama Initiative website states:
The International Satoyama Initiative (ISI) project works to promote the Satoyama Initiative, a global effort to realize societies in harmony with nature through the revitalization and sustainable management of “socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes” (SEPLS) for biodiversity and human well-being. SEPLS are areas where human well-being and the ecosystem have a symbiotic relationship, each benefitting from the other.
ISI supports this concept through:
- Research: ISI actively contributes to the growing body of literature on SEPLS, and continues to expand and strengthen its network with other leading researchers and organizations.
- Networking and capacity building: ISI hosts the Secretariat of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), which has more than 250 partners around the world. IPSI was launched during the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP10) in October 2010, and is actively engaged in global, regional, and sub-regional training and capacity-building events (organized by UNU, the CBD Secretariat, and others) towards implementation of the Satoyama Initiative and the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the process to develop the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Policy contribution: ISI contributes to policymaking processes at the international level, particularly those of the CBD and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
- Outreach and communication: ISI engages in a wide range of international events, often in collaboration with IPSI members, to spread awareness and raise the profile of the Satoyama Initiative. The project also produces promotional publications for a general audience and maintains websites, a newsletter and other communications materials for IPSI.
The IPSI website explains:
The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) is a partnership made up of hundreds of member organisations dedicated to working together to realize societies in harmony with nature. In many parts of the world, people have developed ways to utilize and manage their surrounding natural environment to sustain and improve their daily lives and production activities such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Based on knowledge and practices locally accumulated in such human-nature interactions over a long time, production activities and their management mechanisms have created elaborate systems that have continued to support local communities by providing foods, fuels, and other materials, nurturing traditions and culture, and maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity. However, they have been increasingly threatened by rapid socio-economic changes in recent years. Many have been converted into more uniform, efficient and large-scale production systems that often cause environmental degradation and loss of cultures and traditions. Therefore, it is important to explore ways and means for using and managing natural resources sustainably that benefit current and future generations. To tackle this critical issue, the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ) and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS: formerly the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies) jointly initiated the Satoyama Initiative. This international effort promotes activities consistent with existing fundamental principles including the Ecosystem Approach. IPSI was established in 2010 in order to undertake and facilitate a broad range of activities to implement the concepts of the Satoyama Initiative by diverse stakeholders. […]
“Biodiversity” or “Biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. […]
Current global trends have led to unsustainable use of natural resources around the world, resulting in a catastrophic loss of biodiversity. Experts now warn that the loss of biodiversity could endanger all of human existence in the near future. In response, increasing attention is now being paid to finding ways to reverse these trends, including new and traditional land use systems based on knowledge gained from local communities’ long-term efforts to adapt to their surrounding environments and live in a sustainable manner. In many places, harmonious interactions between humans and nature have created complex social-ecological systems that can provide both human well-being and biodiversity conservation. It is imperative that we as human societies find ways to enhance and expand these good practices for the future of humanity and our planet.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)